Letters

I am writing a printed-circuit-board layout program called
FreePCB, which I intend to publish on the Internet as an
open-source project. I chose to write it for Microsoft Windows, and
if it is successful I would like to port it to Linux. When it comes
time to port it to Linux, how would you suggest that I
proceed?

—Allan Wright

One way to do a cross-platform application is with wxWindows
(see page 90). It's being used in the upcoming Chandler
cross-platform mail and calendar—Ed.

Sales Departments Need Help

I have been reading a lot about failed distributions lately.
I would like to recommend that sales departments take a close look
at how they handle customer relations. Mandrake Linux refuses even
to post an e-mail address for pre-sales questions. I have attempted
to contact these people with detailed questions about product
component level support, prior to purchase, without success. Red
Hat refuses to respond to the individual user for pre-sales
inquiries. Heck, I have even tried to get information out of them
for my place of employment, an enterprise-level situation. SuSE—my
hat is off to these guys. You may not get the perfect response, but
they do acknowledge you exist and try to help. I have a copy of 7.3
Pro and am most likely to purchase another version once I get a
home wireless network. Debian—again, my hat is off, and they don't
even sell anything. I have had many responses to inquiries from
their support base. Thanks to SuSE and Debian. Please keep up the
good work.

—John R. Klaus

alt.fan.robert-love

I want to thank you for getting Robert Love to write the
article on kernel 2.6. The article was simply superb and explained
many facts about what happens during the kernel development
process.

—Ravi

Vive le Chef!

I give credit to Mr Gagné for my first purchase of
LJ. When teaching at a local college, I
directed my students to articles of his that were relevant to
topics covered. I joined his site mailing list and purchased his
book because of his style of writing. Your web site has given me
the opportunity to publish articles I have written, and I will
admit my writing style tends to mirror Mr Gagné's. I find a
lighter writing style mixed with a human element has character.
Computer concepts can be brought to life. It is our responsibility
as authors to make it happen. I have strong memories of teachers
and writers who moved off the mainstream path to deliver their
message. You are doing something right when you offer Marcel
Gagné's articles to your readers.

—Sean D. Conway

Spam Kills

Twenty billion junk e-mail messages sent per day may
potentially take 20 billion seconds to delete. A human life is a
mere two billion seconds long. In effect, spammers kill ten people
each day. If Linux Journal financially
supports a business that offers web hosting services to spammers,
then Linux Journal in effect backs spamming.
It would be more appropriate for Linux Journal
to question the allegations that Rackspace harbors spammers, than
to question the need of the Internet community to take meaningful
action against network abuse.

—Anders Andersson, Uppsala University

Shirt Sandbags Linux at Church

Linux Journal's silly “Linux Saves”
T-shirt really undermines my effort to recommend the use of Linux
in the United Methodist Church. I feel that churches would greatly
benefit from Linux and other open-source software, and I don't
understand why someone would create a product like this. Maybe they
thought it would be funny outside the church, but inside, nobody is
laughing.

—Mark Ramsell

Wine Recommendation

Please, please keep Marcel and his trusted assistant,
François exactly as they are! Not only does it help the
Francophiles among us to brush up on our French, but the levity it
provides actually aids the cognitive process, at least in this
reader's humble opinion. Marcel, when are you going to feature a
fine Virginia wine?

—Pat Murphy

Red-Eye No More

I fixed one of my digital images after reading Eric Jeschke's
excellent tutorial in LJ's April issue, and I
wanted to thank you for this excellent series. I can't wait to read
Eric's next article.